Kodak talks Prinergy 8 for Indian market

Allan Brown is travelling in India in the last week of April. Brown who is the general manager for Kodak’s Workflow business (Kodak worldwide) and vice president of Eastman Kodak Company along with Subhrajit Ray, national business manager - India cluster, software & solutions division, Kodak India spoke to PrintWeek India about the Prinergy 8 workflow which was recently unveiled.

(l-r) Allan Brown along with Subhrajit Ray

Brown spoke about how the digital Job Ticket Editor can permit a digital press operator to configure digital front ends (DFEs) in one place inside the Prinergy Workflow. This means, all the options (for example, inline finishing, stock) for each digital devices for configuration within the Prinergy Workflow. You have one operational control centre rather than forcing an operator to configure in different places.

Brown stressed that the USP of the Prinergy Workflow was "bi-directional communication with the DFEs". This provides the operator centralised control.

Brown who has more than 25 years of experience in the production and Enterprise software environs, added, “Our customers now have powerful new tools like a single integrated workflow, the functionality to reduce material waste and a reduction in job turnover times that will enable them to spend more time on growing their business.”

According to Brown, the Prinergy Workflow 8, offers a single workflow for both offset and digital printing to maximise efficiency and productivity with reduced turnaround times. The key is its ability to integrate digital kit like Ricoh, Konica Minolta, Landa and Komori and enable an advanced level of centralised digital device control and automation.

According to Ray who concurred with Brown, "The system that delivers production automation in Prinergy is Rules Based Automation (RBA). In today's world where it is onerous to predict every workflow, every scenario, all the steps a print job flows through inside a print plant, the RBA helps connect with any device, any process." The Kodak slogan to highlight the virtues of the RBA within the Prinergy 8 is a bit of a tongue twister, “Profilerate Prinergy Ubiquitously”.

Brown said: “Prinergy is compact and user-friendly. It's capability empowers print service providers to effectively and efficiently monitor their production costs in real-time, improving operational performance and boosting profits.”

The duo took the opportunity to brief PrintWeek India at the Kodak HQ in Mumbai to announce Kodak's launch of Prinergy Cloud. Central to the new cloud platform is its Decision Analytics engine, which is designed to reduce costs and risk by monitoring production in real-time, continually collecting production data and sending the print operator reports on processes such as colour usage and print passes.

Hosted on the Microsoft Azure platform, Kodak’s Prinergy Cloud can be integrated with printers’ existing Kodak software and according to the manufacturer will lower operating costs by reducing hardware and administrative overheads.